Neil Hamburger, self-proclaimed "America's Funnyman", has his sights set on the "Australia's Funnyman" tag now that he spends a lot of time here, confounding us with his razor-blunt wit. Yet first he must overcome the local competition "like that Austen Tayshus character - he seems to have the title all wrapped up".

Hamburger is slowly expanding his grasp of the awkward or anti-comedy market, the territory of Ricky Gervais's The Office. The dilemma for any Hamburger audience is generally a feeling of "Is this for real?".

It's a situation not helped by his practice of pretending heckling doesn't exist. Or continuing with his seemingly endless repertoire of old-school zingers that either don't zing or are so obscene the crowd reacts with confused laughter.

That Hamburger is so obvious and indifferent to crowd response is not only funny, but makes him stand out from the tepid ranks of observational humorists.

Picture a shortish man in a bad suit and with an extreme comb-over, juggling two scotches, a cigarette and boasting a demented hyena cough.

Hamburger's creaky performance technique could be a direct descendant of our own Norman Gunston.

He has just finished a tour of the American South and feels his humour is universal.

"I tell jokes about Colonel Sanders and they go down well," says Hamburger in his stale, halted, bad-Vegas manner. "We will continue going where people want us. Y'know, people who have been in industrial accidents need to be lifted a bit, and that's what we try to do."

But not those suffering textile trauma.

"[Janet Jackson's] wardrobe malfunction was a lot better than mine. Mould on the inside of a lapel is not quite the same."

Hamburger prefers the company of the indie crowd, having played warm-up gigs for bands ranging from American noise terrorists Mr Bungle and Sydney's Frenzal Rhomb to even maudlin balladeer Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

However, he does draw the line at supporting Norwegian death metal band Mayhem, who became better known when guitarist Euronymous was stabbed to death by the band's bass player, Count Grishnackh.

"It's dangerous enough travelling as it is on the Greyhound bus, what with axles breaking in Ohio and everything," says Hamburger. "But hanging out with murdering types, I just don't think I want encourage that sort of behaviour."

Apart from doing his usual stand-up routine, Hamburger will be mixing things up on this tour. His Metro show will be straight stand-up, while at his Blaxland and Annandale shows he will show a 10-minute film called Left For Dead in Malaysia, which immortalises his time with manager Art Huckman.

Huckman booked Hamburger for a gig in Malaysia where English clearly wasn't the language of choice - the crowd reacted with a deathly silence.

The reaction might have been like that of some of his more confused crowds, but Hamburger recorded the gig for posterity.

For those keen to trade witticisms, Hamburger will eschew stand-up for a Q&A session with the audience at the Annandale show. Hamburger's customary support, Dr El Suavo, will appear at each gig.

Hamburger appears to be lurching towards some sort of success, with a recently released live DVD and a possible TV show with American gross-out comic Tom Green, but he's keeping his options open.

"I might do a children's birthday party and pull a rabbit out of a hat," he says.

"Perhaps one of those Tupperware parties where I can tell a few bawdy jokes. It's the mark of a true professional."

Hamburger says this success has earned him gigs at greyhound tracks, but he's still dismayed at having to play dining rooms.

"I'm just recovering from another show out in a pizza parlour," he says. "It didn't go too well. But what can you do? You just kick along. The problem was they were more into their pizzas. There was a two-for-one special on and most people didn't bother looking up to see what was going on onstage."

Yet if success can be judged by the company he meets on late-night chat shows, Hamburger has it made. After meeting Yoko Ono, he's "hoping for a collaboration, perhaps Double Fantasy 2".

"[Double Fantasy] was a great album," says Hamburger. "She never followed that up and it was her biggest album. I thought we could get something going with that."

Hamburger concedes the sequel would be a little different.

"That's what you get when you take two original talents like they did with the original," he says.

"Of course, my talents are different from Jack Lemmon's ... I'm on more of a comedy thing. I could tell a couple of jokes, Yoko could sing a couple of songs, maybe a skit."